US Open Day 10 - Roddick comes up short

Day number 10 of the 2007 US Open saw the completion of the ladies quarter-finals and number 15 in the Roger Federer v Andy Roddick series of matches.

First up on Ashe today was what looked a competitive encounter between Shahar Peer and Anna Chakvetadze, but after a promising start, the Israeli fell away dramatically.

From 4-2 ahead in the first set, Peer lost ten out of the next eleven games for a disappointing 4-6, 1-6 reverse, despite the assistance of a noisy support group who needed to be made aware of tennis etiquette by the umpire.

So, Chakvetadze advanced to the semi-finals where she will play my bet, Svetlana Kuznetsova, after the number four seed also advanced in straight sets in her quarter final against Agnes Szavay.

Sveta was never in any trouble and played her most dominant and impressive match of the tournament. I hope she is peaking at the right time and I fancy her to get the better of Chakvetadze on today’s form.

Next on Ashe was the first of the men’s quarter finals, between Tommy Haas and Nikolay Davydenko and this was a repeat of last year’s quarter final, won by the Russian in five after Haas had won the first two sets.

This for me looked to be the match of the day, as their previous two matches had gone to five sets and it didn’t look good for Haas when he chucked his racquet into the net in anger after losing his serve at 3-3 in the opening set.

From that point on it was all Davydenko. He went a set and a break up and Haas looked deflated and on the way out until he somehow broke back, but he failed to hold an epic eighth game, which included a diving volley winner and an explosion at the umpire, both from Haas of course and the Russian went two sets up.

For my money, Davydenko represents all that’s wrong with many sports stars these days. Totally dull and emotionless and although he possesses some real talent, I would be gutted to have bought a ticket for the US Open and then discovered that I had to suffer a Davydenko match. Even when he wins a brilliant rally, there’s barely a flicker of a change in his countenance.

The New York crowd were behind Tommy, presumably for the same reason, but at least I had the option to switch off, start to fill in my tax return and wait for Williams v Jankovic for some entertainment. For the record, the charismatic Russian won the match 6-3, 6-3, 6-4; Tommy’s Dunlop’s took a beating and my tax return is on it’s way to HM Customs & Excise.

The hopes of the Williams family rested on the not unsubstantial shoulders of Venus, after Serena’s rather graceless defeat to Justine Henin on Tuesday night. I was surprised that Serena was quoted as saying, “she made a lot of lucky shots”; from where I was sitting, Henin outplayed Serena and appears to have her number at this point in their careers.

Jankovic got off to a great start by breaking Venus in the first game with a delightful lob and went on to deservedly take the first set by 6-4 with some great defensive play and great passes down the line. She must have been inspired by comic legend, Larry David’s appearance at courtside and too many unforced errors from Williams also had a slight bearing on the outcome of set one.

Venus stepped on the gas in the second set and took it 6-1, but Jankovic was far from done and there were no breaks of serve in the decider and therefore a tie break was required to separate these two.

Jankovic had hardly put a foot wrong in the third set, but made several unforced errors in the breaker and left herself too much to do from 2-5 down. Venus claimed the victory with a drive volley and we have a ladies semi-final to savour.

It was after 3 am again when Roddick and Federer took to the court and I am starting to resemble Keith Richards after a heavy session at the moment.

Both men, for reasons known only to themselves, turned up in all black and surely this would be a quick win for the Swiss maestro and so it proved.

Although Roddick took the first two sets to breakers, Fed was always in control and recorded his fourteenth win from fifteen starts against A-Rod, who quite simply will never beat Federer in a slam, regardless of the amount of cheerleaders he employs.